London With Kids

Our Family Trip To London

We just got back from London. Here are some pictures and suggestions for enjoying your family trip to London.

This was probably our kids’ favorite attraction. The London Transport Museum has an incredible display of exhibits about subways, buses, posters, and future plans. A must see in London.

The Museum of the London Docklands covered the commercial history of the Thames and the growth of London around the river. It was one of my favorites.

The Tower of London was very popular with the kids. Here’s a model of the Tower on display inside the museum.

A view of Tower Bridge from The Tower.

The boys took the audio tour at the Imperial War Museum.

The Imperial War Museum had some hands-on fun. In this case the Submarine exhibit.

The Imperial War Museum was also one of the boys’ favorites.

The family tours and audio guides were great at the British Museum. Here the adventure guide took us through the Egyptian mummies.

Not far from Tower Bridge is the Borough Market. It was highly recommended to us by a few local friends and was a great place for a weekend visit.

Kipling ordering curry for lunch at the Borough Market.

There were lots of tasty treats too.

The National Army Museum. An interesting place but if you only have 2 or 3 days then you can safely give it a miss. The museum does have a Kids’ Zone that is popular for ages 1 to 5, but you need to reserve time slots in advance to have any hope of getting in.

The Natural History Museum was a highlight for the whole family.

A demonstration at the London Science Museum. This is the Launchpad exhibit for hands-on fun on the 3rd floor. There is also the Pattern Pod area on the ground floor.

The kids enjoyed the Science Museum but if you can only do one of the Kensington museums then make it the Natural History Museum

Double Decker Bus Ride (video) – Skip the expensive tourist buses. Grab a map for buses from a tube station and take a bus that runs through the city center. Buses come seemingly every 5 to 7 minutes so you never have to wait long.

The Golden Hind Restaurant in Marylebone for superb fish n’ chips. This was the best place we ate in London (besides some great Indian restaurants).

11 questions and comments

Just to mention a place I found for some really fun activities for kids. Second floor Studios in Greenwich have some amazing people offering great value for money activities. While we were there my kids learnt circus tricks, candle making (which my opinion was the best out of the lot!), mountain climbing and go-carting.

Hi there – I’m trying to find a park with picnic tables in London (ideally Hampstead Heath) and found your post. You mention most parks have picnic tables and I’m finding this actually not to be true. Which parks have you been to that have picnic tables?

We are heading to London this spring and one thing I did to decrease sightseeing costs was purchase a London pass card. This covers admission to 55+ attractions in London. You might do better on prices if you know exactly where you want to go and pre-purchase tix online. However, I wanted the flexibility of not worrying about tickets I purchased to see a cathedral …if I later changed my mind. To get your monies worth you have to see a lot of attractions in a short period of time.

Hands down my boys favorite place in London is the Princess Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens. It’s a Peter Pan themed playground complete with pirate ship, tipis, lost boy’s hideouts, and the like! Best of all it’s free. There’s also a little cafe there for snacks or a light lunch–all kid friendly of course! Our family takes the tube to High Street Kensington to have lunch at Whole Foods (great for our multiple food-allergy fam) then walks over past Kensington Palace. It’s a great day out!

There are day passes – Oyster cards and travelcards – but whether you’ll buy or need them for your kids will depend on their ages. Generally 10 and under and they won’t need a Oyster card, as long as they are accompanied by an adult they’ll be free on trams, buses, light rail and the tube. Ages 11 to 15 they’ll be free on the trams and buses, and have the child rate on light rail and the tube but they’ll need the Oyster photocard.

The Oyster card is awesome and highly recommended for adults. It makes getting on the tube, buses, and light rail so easy. You never have to worry about having the right change or money. And it makes most trips cheaper than if you bought a single fare. They do require a small deposit but getting it refunded on your last day in London is easy. You buy them at any tube station and get them refunded at any tube station. You can add money to them at kiosks in any tube station as well. When you enter a tube station with the card there are usually special gates you can use that will allow your kids to enter with you (and avoid the turnstile type gates that allow only one person through at a time). If you have any trouble just ask an attendant and they’ll wave you through with your kids.

Nice suggestions of what to do in London! My wife and I have have just finished writing our guide to the city with more free advice on what to see and we recommend walking along the South Bank for free and taking in the sights too. I know it sounds odd, but we’d also say Tate Modern is a must and again is free. There’s more here…..

London’s public transport is seamless. The Tube is an efficient network of interchangeable colour-coded rail lines taking you from one side of London to another in next to no time. But like all good services you pay for it. If you are going to regularly use the tube an Oyster Card can help you reduce travel costs.